The effort to convert people to plant-based diets is nothing new, but the effort to move people from eating meat to going vegan continues to gain traction.



There are some who wholeheartedly believe a plant-based diet is better for your health than one that includes animal proteins. But those leading the anti-meat agenda likely have goals in mind that aren't really about your health.



If you could build muscle, maximize bone density, minimize excess body fat, and boost cognitive function by removing meat from an otherwise healthy diet, I’d be the first to jump on board.



However, scientific evidence fails to support any of these benefits. A 2020 systematic review even finds a strong connection between plant-based diets and anxiety and depression.



That’s the topic of this article.



In modern history, Dr. Harvey Kellogg might deserve credit for seeing the power of meat to influence your mind and mood, though it's probably not the way you might be thinking. 




He thought that meat and certain flavorful or seasoned foods increased sexual desire, and that plainer food, especially cereals and nuts, could curb it...Kellogg developed a few different flaked grain breakfast cereals—including corn flakes—as healthy, ready-to-eat, anti-masturbatory morning meals.
Matt Soniak, Corn Flakes Were Part of an Anti-Masturbation Crusade



Think about that the next time you look at a box of Corn Flakes. His anti-meat ideology led to one of the biggest food industry categories: breakfast cereal. Not something I'd recommend starting your day with.



Interestingly, many vegan websites claim that vegans have stronger libidos. For example, here’s the search results of the phrase “research vegan diet libido” from my Brave browser.







As I read through some of the articles, I noticed a total lack of scientific evidence. When I searched PubMed for “vegan diet libido,” I only came up with this paper:







The case study authors stated:




To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a combination of decreased free testosterone and increased DHEA blood concentrations after consuming a soy-rich diet. Hence, this case emphasizes the impact of isoflavones in the regulation of sex hormones and associated physical alterations.
Siepmann T, et al.



Obviously, you can follow a vegan diet while avoiding soy, but many vegan foods contain it. So, maybe Dr. Harvey Kellogg was onto something with his belief that a plant-based diet changes your psychology. Then again, this is just a single case study.



That said, libido is just once small (but significant) aspect of mental health. Possibly more important to understand is how a vegan diet affects depression and anxiety. According to the World Health Organization, mental illness is the leading cause of disability in the world. No doubt, they and most countries' leaders made that problem worse with how they approached the Covid Circus.



Globalists seem intent on moving the population to a plant-based diet out of concerns about climate change. That argument is a whole other controversial topic to address at another time. If you don't want to wait for some answers on this, I recommend reading Sacred Cow: The Case for (Better) Meat: Why Well-Raised Meat Is Good for You and Good for the Planet.



The question is: how does a plant-based diet affect depression and anxiety? If it makes those mental health problems worse, it would seem that a questionable attempt to save the planet while harming the people would be a bad idea.



Before we get to the effects of a vegan diet on anxiety and depression, I need to back up a bit and discuss how the effects of vegan diets have been assessed and review some of the nutrient gaps they leave behind. Once you understand that, it makes it easier to understand why vegan diets affect mental health the way they do.



What are you comparing a vegan diet to?



When a proponent of a vegetarian diet or vegan diet says "it's healthier,